Izuchukwu OkosiThe FA (England) charged Arsenal with failing to control their players on Tuesday night in their Premier League meeting with Newcastle United for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves following their last-minute penalty incident.
The Gunners’ lead at the top of the Premier League table has been cut back down to five points following the 0-0 stalemate with the Magpies, who survived a spot-kick shout right at the death.
This is with reference to not acting ‘in an orderly fashion during the 95th minute’ when the home side were claiming a penalty.
In the fifth minute of second-half injury time, Granit Xhaka’s attempted cross into the box struck the arm of Jacob Murphy at close range, leading to Arsenal players to remonstrate with referee Andy Madley for a penalty.
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However, Madley waved away the appeals, and VAR official Stuart Attwell upheld the decision, leaving Gunners players and Mikel Arteta seething with anger at the full-time whistle.
Arsenal was also denied another penalty call when center-back Gabriel was dragged down inside the box by Dan Burn.
Neither Madley nor Attwell saw anything wrong with that incident either, leading Gabriel to aim a thinly-veiled dig at the officials in a social media post.
“Arsenal FC has been charged with a breach of FA Rule E20.1 following its Premier League match against Newcastle United on Tuesday 3 January 2023,” a statement read.
“It’s alleged that Arsenal FC failed to ensure its players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during the 95th minute, and the club has until Tuesday 10 January to respond.”
A report from Goal states that Arsenal is unlikely to appeal the charge and will seemingly accept any punishment that comes their way from the FA.
Meanwhile, manager Mikel Arteta was on Friday named the Premier League Coach of the Month of December 2022.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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